The National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange Limited (NCDEX) has launched a next-generation mutual fund transaction platform called Nidhi, aimed at bridging the investment gap in rural and semi-urban regions. This platform will work as a last-mile network, allowing farmers, traders, and Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) to invest in mutual funds.
Nidhi is an end-to-end mutual fund transaction platform that enables members, mutual fund distributors, mutual fund intermediaries, and registered investment advisors to perform various transactions, including investor onboarding, lump-sum investments, and redemptions. The platform is Sebi-regulated and complies with AMFI norms for mutual fund transactions.
Dr. Arun Raste, MD and CEO of NCDEX, says Nidhi is a natural extension of the company’s mission to connect India’s underserved communities to formal, regulated markets. With this launch, NCDEX aims to expand its reach into rural and semi-urban India, enabling millions of first-time investors to participate in the mutual fund market.
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The Nidhi platform offers several key features, including accurate timestamping for NAV, universal UPI autopay, clear failure reasons, flexible transaction support, and flexible SIP options. These features aim to provide a seamless and transparent investment experience for users.
One of the unique aspects of Nidhi is its structured verification, consent, reconciliation, and settlement framework, which enables secure and streamlined transaction processing between investors, intermediaries, AMCs, RTAs, payment aggregators, and NCCL. The platform focuses on operational efficiency, transaction transparency, and complete investor in-the-loop processes and notifications.
Investors can access the Nidhi platform online by visiting the NCDEX website. Distributors can also integrate the platform into their own systems through APIs. The onboarding process is entirely digital and requires investors to fulfill KYC checks, PAN validation, bank account verification, and an OTP-based two-factor authentication.
Once the onboarding process is completed, investors can invest easily through their physical folios using one-time payment options like UPI and net banking or SIPs with UPI Autopay and e-NACH mandates. The transactions on Nidhi are cleared and settled through NCCL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NCDEX, which manages fund collection, payment validation, and reconciliation.
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Nidhi is part of a broader effort to increase access to financial services in rural and semi-urban areas, where many individuals and organizations have limited access to formal investment channels – this can help bridge the investment gap and provide more opportunities for economic growth.
The Nidhi platform’s settlement rules require transactions to be cleared and settled through NCCL, which coordinates between banks, registrars, and transfer agents, AMCs, depositories, and payment aggregators for the settlement of transactions. However, NCCL does not act as a counterparty to transactions and does not provide a settlement guarantee.
They aim to make the investment process more accessible.
